Re: SMail and biff

Article View: comp.mail.misc

Article #3535

#3535

From: Lyndon Nerenberg
Date: Tue, 21 May 1991 21:28

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lan_csse@netrix.nac.dec.com (CSSE LAN Test Account) writes:

>What biff does is wake up periodically and check the mtime for your
>mail file (/usr/spool/mail/$USER).  Test this by:
>	echo Hi there >> /usr/spool/mail/$USER
>and sit back and wait.  After a couple of minutes, biff will tell you 
>that you have new mail.

Huh? Biff (more properly, comsatd) waits for messages (on udp port 512)
from your MTA. Upon receipt of a delivery notification from the MTA, it
attempts to notify the user that mail has arrived. If your biff behaves like 
you say it does, it's not the biff that the rest of us run (derived from BSD).

-- 
    Lyndon Nerenberg  VE6BBM / Computing Services / Athabasca University
           atha!cs.athabascau.ca!lyndon || lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca
                    Packet: ve6bbm@ve6mc.ab.can.noam
        As a math athiest, I should be excused from this.   --Calvin

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Message-ID: <lyndon.674861290@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca>

Path:

arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!mips!atha!aupair.cs.athabascau.ca!lyndon

References: <2989@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1991May18.043542.27251@Veritas.COM> <22812@shlump.lkg.dec.com>

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!mips!atha!aupair.cs.athabascau.ca!lyndon
From: lyndon@cs.athabascau.ca (Lyndon Nerenberg)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc
Subject: Re: SMail and biff
Keywords: smail, biff, comsat
Message-ID: <lyndon.674861290@aupair.cs.athabascau.ca>
Date: 21 May 91 21:28:10 GMT
References: <2989@odin.cs.hw.ac.uk> <1991May18.043542.27251@Veritas.COM> <22812@shlump.lkg.dec.com>
Organization: Athabasca University
Lines: 18

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